Our LA correspondents, Dominik & Grant attended last night’s gig and have shared the following review. $15 parking and somewhat less traffic than yesterday, today’s double bill actually turns out to be a triple bill. I need to read these tickets better. 3 for the price of one. The Soft Pack, Metric & Phoenix at LA’s famed Greek Theatre. Neither of us are one for outdoor shows, but it’s a lovely night, and the venue looks like My Big Fat Greek Ampitheater. Unfortunately, it’s a mile long hike up to the nosebleeds for us.
Read more & download a Phoenix track AFTER THE JUMP…
The Soft Pack open the show while it’s still light out. People file in and barely take notice of the ex-Muslims Feelies-esque punk. This has to be one of the largest venues this band has played, and it shows. Or maybe The Soft Pack is just suited to smaller clubs. They close strongly with ‘Parasites’. Emily Haines takes the stage at about 8:15 in a short sequined number and bleached blonde hair. Metric open with a moody, near ten minute rendition of ‘Twilight Galaxy’ before ripping into the anthemic ‘Help, I’m Alive’, both from this year’s too-awesome-for-words, Fantasies. These Canadian math-popsters have grown into stadium rock stars. They only played a few older songs in the 50 minute set. Highlights include ‘Empty’ from 2006′s Live It Out and their classic, ‘Dead Disco’, which featured a new Cyndi Lauper-ish call & response breakdown. Neat! Metric prove they don’t need to dip too far into their back catalog to deliver all the thrilling peaks and valleys of a classic rock show. Songs were extended, tempos were adjusted, slippery synth lines were added.
Phoenix can’t top this.
And they didn’t. Motionless behind an anonymous cloud of smoke and poor lighting choices, Phoenix delivered a solid rundown of all their hits. They opened with the one-two punch of ‘Lisztomania’ and ‘Long Distance Call’ and maintained that energy mostly throughout (barring an unfortunate instrumental passage that seemed to drag on for a while). Thomas Mars announced they were gonna try a song they’d never played live before: ‘Fences’ from this year’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. They did a great job. The best came at the end. Set closer ‘Rome’ was extended by a 5 minute synth jam with samples. How un-Phoenix! The encore included an awesome cover of Air’s ‘Playground Love’. Playing a nice mixture of all three of their albums, it’s nice to see how much Phoenix have improved over the years.
MP3: Phoenix – 1901
